Passengers of the Titanic submersible are required to sign a waiver acknowledging the potential risks of death associated with deep-sea diving, it has emerged.
A massive search and rescue operation is still under way in the mid Atlantic after the tourist submarine went missing during a dive to Titanic's wreck on Sunday.
According to the Coast Guard, the craft submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later.
A previous passenger who's been on board the OceanGate submersible before, CBS journalist David Pogue said that among the paperwork shown to potential passengers was a waiver which said: "This experimental vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, emotional trauma, or death."
Mike Reiss, an American television writer and producer, told BBC Breakfast he did three separate dives including one to the Titanic and each time "you sign a massive waiver you could die on the trip".
The writer said when he boarded the boat which takes passengers to the Titanic, a list is given to passengers which reveals they might not return from the trip.
Mr Reiss said: "To get on the boat that takes you to the Titanic, you sign a a massive waiver that you could die on the trip.
"On the list, they mention death three times on page one and it's never far from your mind. As I was getting on the submarine, this could be the end.
"Nobody who was in this situation was caught off-guard. You all know what you're getting into, it's exploration, it's not a vacation, and it's not thrill-seeking, it's not like skydiving, these are explorers and travellers who want to see something."
Unlike submarines that leave and return to port under their own power, submersibles require a ship to launch and recover them.
Rear Admiral John W Mauger of the US Coast Guard said they are doing “everything” they can to find the submersible, saying it has one pilot and four mission specialists aboard with up to 96 hours of emergency oxygen on board.
“We anticipate that there’s somewhere between 70 to the full 96 hours at this point,” he said on Monday. “It is a remote area and a challenge, but we are deploying all available assets.”
He said additional resources would arrive in the coming days.
The Coast Guard said there was one pilot and four “mission specialists” aboard. “Mission specialists” are people who pay to come along on OceanGate’s expeditions.
They take turns operating sonar equipment and performing other tasks in the five-person submersible.
An initial group of tourists in 2021 paid $100,000 to $150,000 apiece to go on the trip. OceanGate’s website described the “mission support fee” for the 2023 expedition as $250,000 a person.
The submersible was taking part in OceanGate’s third annual voyage to the monitor the decay of the ship’s wreckage, following expeditions in 2021 and 2022.
But in a tweet on Monday, CBS Sunday Morning correspondent David Pogue added: "You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard…”
In his broadcast from the time, he said: “There is no GPS under water so the surface ship is supposed to guide the sub to the shipwreck by sending text messages.
“But on this dive communication somehow broke down, the sub never found the wreck.”
